Mauritius

A lot of you have been asking me about my trip and what I did in Mauritius so here I am writing this post for all you lovely readers. Although I’m sure that those of you following me on Snapchat are aware of my movements, its the details that might interest you. 😀

So every year me and husband take a few days off and travel in the month of June, it being our anniversary month. This time we decided to go to a beach destination, away from all the city hustle and a place where we could simply unwind. There were two places that we narrowed down to after a lot of contemplation, one being Mauritius and the other, Bali.

We finalized on St.Regis for our six-day stay after checking out the reviews and pictures of all the good luxury hotels. On the night of 7th June, we took the flight to Mauritius and 8th afternoon we were sitting in the hotel. The weather was chilly there with strong winds and slight rains and sadly, I was carrying nothing to keep me warm. But the property was magnificent and as beautiful as you can imagine.

Lunch was had by the beach bar at Boathouse Bar & Grill and believe me the view was breathtaking. After having a delectable meal, we checked into our suite and decided to rest for a while.

The suite was much better than what we expected. We had an exclusive butler service and the staff was extremely polite and took great care of our comfort.

In the evening, we went for a stroll alongside the beach and explored the widespread property. After having a few drinks at the bar, we ordered dinner in the room itself and trust me, it was delicious.

The next morning, we had our breakfast and took a cab to Casela Nature Park. So as per our itinery, we had planned on going to a few must-see places in Mauritius and this was one of them. The park is located in the western part of Mauritius between Flic en Flac and Tamarin. Here, we got to see a huge variety of birds (over 150 species) and animals like lions, rhinos, tigers, giraffes, zebras, monkeys,etc.

It took us approximately 3 hours in the park to finish the walk and jungle safari but it was truly worth it. Post that we asked our cab driver to take us to some place where we could grab a good mauritian meal and he suggested Mich Resto at Chamarel. As we were famished, we ordered food and beer as soon as we got a place and frankly, it was the best lunch we had during our whole trip.

After lunch, we went to see the Chamarel waterfalls and Seven-coloured earth, the two other prominent tourist attractions in Mauritius.

The Seven colored earth is a relatively small area of sand dunes comprising sand of seven distinct colours (red, brown, violet, green, blue, purple and yellow). The main feature of the place is that since these differently coloured sands spontaneously settle in different layers, dunes acquire a surrealistic, striped colouring. The different shades of colour are believed to be a consequence of the molten volcanic rock cooling down at different external temperatures, but the causes of their consistent spontaneous separation are yet to be fully clarified.

After reaching the hotel, we went to the private beach for a dip and spent a few hours lying on the beach bed, watching the sunset and admiring the beauty of nature. 😀

The third morning, we had plans of chilling at the hotel itself so we got ready, had our breakfast at the beach bar and went straight to the pool.

For lunch, we thought of exploring the surrounding area ourselves and thus, hired a bike from the hotel. That was one hell of a ride I tell you! We spotted a good shopping and food complex on the map with the help of the hotel staff ofcourse, and rode till there. After years, I must have commuted by a two-wheeler and honestly, the experience was par expectation.

While walking around the complex, we saw this open-air restaurant which looked interesting and had a promising menu so we stopped there. Although the service was pretty slow, the food was good and flavourful. Post lunch, we checked out a few stores and picked up stuff like souvenirs, etc.

By 5 pm, we were back in our room as we had our jacuzzi, sauna and hamam appointment. So we quickly changed and left for the spa.The best thing about this session was that it was exclusive and we had the whole facility to ourselves. I can’t even describe how relaxed I felt after this rejuvenating experience.

For Dinner, we went to the Indian restaurant at St.Regis itself as it serves the best Indian cuisine in Mauritius. The food here satiated my palate like nothing else. We even called the chef to congratulate him for doing such a fantastic job. 🙂

Next day we headed towards La Vanille Crocodile park, located in the South of Mauritius. This nature park is home to various species of animals, reptiles and plants and is set in a beautiful rain forested valley with natural freshwater springs and fish.

Not only do you get to see a large number of crocodiles here but also you can experience a firsthand unique encounter with the giant tortoises, and get a rare chance to feed, pet and play with them.

After spending over an hour here, we went to one of the most beautiful viewpoints in Mauritius called Gris Gris.Overlooking the Indian Ocean, the sight from this grassy cliff was simply spectacular.

Since we were quite hungry by the time we got done with this, we asked the driver to take us to a good lunch place and even though I don’t remember the name, the steak there was utterly delicious and a class apart from the rest.

Once we got back, we changed and went for a walk around the hotel and the beach. We also played Pool and Table tennis in the Recreation area.

For dinner, we went to the Multi-cuisine restaurant in the hotel only and sat by the pool. With a live band playing on one side and the view so good, our date became as romantic as it could. It was such a fun evening. 😀

The next day we had plans of chilling on the beach and doing some water activities so we woke up, had our breakfast, took some pictures and headed towards the sea sports area.

We decided to do Kayaking (Canoeing) and Snorkeling as these were the only two activities that could be done without any training and within a short span.

Words aren’t enough to describe the fun we had doing both these activities. It was absolutely insane! Post this, we grabbed a few beers and lay on the beach enjoying the sea view.

After spending a few hours at the beach, we moved to the poolside cabana and ordered food. Once we were done with lunch, we went back to our room, rested for a bit and got ready for the evening.

In Mauritius, most of the places are shut on Sundays and the night scene is pretty dull. We weren’t aware of this so the conceirge suggested us a great pizzeria for dinner in La Gaulette called Enso Restaurant & Lounge Bar which was like half an hour away from St.Regis. The hotel cab took us to this place and surprisingly, it was quite an happening one.

Do try the fresh Tuna steak here if you visit Mauritius. Its the best fish steak I’ve ever had in my life. Even their pizzas are delicious and you might want to dig into their desserts as well. We thoroughly enjoyed our meal here and were grateful to the conceirge for recommending this one. ❤

Our last day started early as we wanted to extract as much as we could from the few hours we had in hand. Breakfast was had right next to the beach, enjoying the sea breeze and the panaromic view.

We headed towards the pool after that and since I had some work to finish, I did that lying on the pool bed while Prateek took off for a swim.

After an hour……

We called for lunch in the room itself as we had to get ready to leave for the airport. After relishing our last meal in Mauritius, we packed our stuff and went straight to the reception.

View from Room

We checked out from the hotel and took a cab to the airport at around 5 30 pm.

After getting done with the security check and all, we went to the duty free section from where I shopped a little. I had picked up some stuff from Mumbai airport too on our way to Mauritius so this was like a bonus for me. 😀

We were back in Delhi the next morning and all we could think of was the extraordinary vacation we just had. This holiday surely reminded us of our honeymoon in Maldives and came pretty close to it. 🙂

Hope you guys enjoyed reading my Travel tale! In case you have any queries, please feel free to mail me at naina.ruhail@gmail.com or leave a comment below!